Monday, September 08, 2008

The other day, my wife and I were driving the kids home from the mall, when the traffic light turned yellow.

I, of course, sped up a bit to make it through the light. I did "make it" even though the light might have been "orange", as we like to call it.

Our 4-year-old daughter was very curious about this, however, much to my dismay. This is one of those things I will have to remember when I'm trying to set a good example for our older, 11-year-old daughter, who will be driving in just over 4 years (yikes!....she can hardly clean her room, let alone pilot a 2-ton moving vehicle!).

Anyway, our 4-year-old turned to me and asked,

"Daddy, why did you go faster through that light?"

My wife found this question very amusing.

"Well," I replied, "the light was about to turn red, so I had to get through it."

"But, Daddy....how did you KNOW it was going to turn red?", she asked.

You know, sometimes I swear she knows the answers to these questions but she just likes to hear herself talk or something. That, or she just doesn't know how to ask what she really wants to ask so I get the "decoy" question first.

"Well, when the light is green, you can go, but when it turns yellow, that means it's about to turn red, and then you have to wait.", I answered.

"Oh!", she exclaimed. Aha! The light bulb has gone off. Whew.

Then, as is inevitably the case with my kids, the whole illusion unraveled right before my eyes.

"But, Daddy.....I thought that a yellow light meant you were supposed to slow DOWN?"